Looking back on Kingsday

On 30-04-2020
In Events & Festivals
Tags: amsterdam, holiday, kingsday, kingsnight, photography, throwback

No Comments

Even though Kingsday is already three days in the past, we want to look back on this for us so special and important holiday. As you know, the current situation of Covid-19 was also affecting our craziest day of the year.

How Kingsday is celebrated

Usually, it is a scenario like this: the whole city filled with people dressed in orange – our favourite colour. They are happy, celebrating, drinking and dancing. You can walk from one event location to the next – there are bands, markets and festivals. The reason why we celebrate is the birthday of our King Willem-Alexander, but as you might think already, we use this holiday more to celebrate our Dutchness.

Canals full of party boats

& crowded streets everywhere (images by Matteo @flickr.com)

A comparison to this years Kingsday

This year everything was different. We had strict rules to keep the 1,5m distance. Also, there were no bands, no markets and no festivals. Sadly, we really lost some traditional events and hotspots this year and it sounds quite lame and boring without them.

However, our dutch people still managed to stay positive and celebrated the special day – with caution.

Even though people stayed at home, they were ridiculously dressed in orange as every year, danced around in front of the windows and played loud music. Some people went out for a walk along the streets. You also found small groups celebrating in parks while keeping their distance from another. Thanks to the internet it was easily possible to have parties online and talk to friends. There were even concert streams of artists playing from their home to share their music with everyone on this special day.

So, one can say we made the most out of it and there is no way to stop a celebration like that. Kingsday may have become Homeday but with a lot of creativity, there were many ways to celebrate together.

Sharing is caring – especially in times like these

This beautiful photography is by the fascinating Ilse Huizinga which shares her talent not only with her amazing voice but also loves to capture beautiful moments of our favourite city on camera.